Paper Bag Valentine

February 9, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 1 Comment

Brown paper bags, aka the common lunch sack, are a combination of some of my favorite things: natural fibers, utility, and endless crafty possibilities.

I made Christmas cards from paper bags this holiday season and couldn’t wait for another occasion to create more. Valentines Day seemed like the perfect venue for a sweet, simple card.

Help your kids make a batch for classmates. Use them as place cards for a Valentines dinner party. Surprise your spouse with a gift card to a favorite store tucked inside.

Not only are the uses endless, the design is totally customizable. The look is totally up to you and your taste. Gather your paper scraps or go to a craft store to get a pack of matching scrapbook pa

My favorite part of the design is the little pocket created by folding the bottom of the bag inward and gluing the sides. It’s the best little nook for a gift card or love note, even a mini Hershey’

Paper Bag Valentine’s Day Card

Here’s a list of dimensions for the paper scraps:

1 (3″ x 4 3/4″)
1 (2 3/4″ x 4 3/4″)
1 (3 1/2″ square)
2 (3 1/4″ square)

You’ll need:

Brown paper bag
Paper scaps – patterned or plain to your taste and design
Glue
Scissors

Instructions:

Please excuse the patch of carpet showing in the video – I’m new to this video thing :)

Refer to the Christmas Card post if you want written instructions.

Bare {Five Minute Friday}

February 8, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

Oddly enough, I was in the shower yesterday wondering if “naked” had ever been the prompt for Five Minute Friday. Lisa-Jo and I must have been on the same wave length.

Naked speaks of the physical and bare speaks of the spiritual.

I would never be in a nudist colony, but if you can get past your own inhibitions, being naked is freeing. There’s nothing between you and the air. You’re open to the element and it feels natural.

Being bare is freeing too. Letting your soul take flight with no shame.

My friend Sarah was talking to a group of high school girls about womanhood a few years ago, emphasizing the need to be naked and unashamed. It was the first time I really equated nakedness with vulnerability.

It was good for Adam and Eve to be naked – they were bare to themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When sin attached shame to their nakedness, they hid. They hid their bodies with clothes and they hid their souls from connecting fully with God.

Had Adam and Eve been open and honest immediately, maybe things would have turned out differently.

We were made to be bare.

We were made to expose our hearts without shame. God craves an intimacy that can only develop when we let Him uncover us. We crave intimacy with people that can only develop when we uncover our hearts to other people.

One of the greatest (and challenging) acts of service we can give to another is to be bare, to be vulnerable, to reveal our brokenness. In our spiritual nakedness, we shed the layers of us so others can see the core of Christ in us.

{Confession: I wrote for more than 5 minutes.}

A Spiritual Third Place?

February 7, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 4 Comments

My brother worked for the Big Green Machine (Star-biz-ucks or just The Bucks in our family’s vernacular) for years. We would laugh at the lengths to which Starbucks would go to create the perfect coffee shop environment. Tim (yes, brother and hubs have the same name) is by no means a corporate kind of guy so he found the “third place” concept a bit eye-rolling.

Starbucks’ goal was to be the place people went when they weren’t at home or at work, the place people chose to meet and hang out, the place you felt most comfortable. His vehemence at the third place protocol was definitely amusing and I, too, rolled my eyes at the effort Starbucks put in to being people’s home away from home.

Then I began to travel and realized just how comforting a little slice of familiarity can be when you’re in a different state or a different country. In a sea of quaint English tea shops or Italian cafes, sometimes you just need a green mermaid on your to-go cup.

I was working in Massachusetts this past week and after a few days alone in a new city, eating PB&J made in my hotel room, I yearned for a sense of home. I let my iPhone lead me to the nearest Starbucks. The familiar scent of freshly ground coffee struck me the minute I pushed through the doors. Computer open, Vanilla Spice Latte in hand, I was less aware of being 2,700 miles from home.

Starbucks isn’t my third place because I’m some sort of coffee snob, it’s mostly because I’ve built memories around being in a Starbucks.

Isn’t that what comfort derives from? Familiarity. Good memories. A sense of reassurance.

My Spiritual Third Place

As I was reflecting on my third place experience from the past week, I realized Starbucks wasn’t the only thing I turned to for comfort when I felt out of place.

God is a consistent presence in my life and has been a very real source of peace as I’ve traveled the globe. On a train, in a plane, or in a lonely hotel room, I find deep comfort and reassurance from reading Scripture.

The Psalms are my spiritual third place. Within the Psalms, I am reminded of God’s faithfulness to me and generations before me. Those memories make my heart feel at home.

My emotions find companionship in the Psalmists who let their songs flow with honesty and intensity. Whether born out of fear, joy, strife, or praise, the Psalms are melodies made of very human feelings. They are feelings I can relate to and the very fact that the words are there, printed in my Bible, draw me closer into God’s arms.

So, when I am slipping between the sheets of a strange bed, wishing the vast space to my left wasn’t empty, I can read a Psalm and know that I’m not alone.

Where is your third place?

A spiritual third place has been more important in my life than a physical third place.

Do you have one a spiritual third place? What about our Lord makes you feel at home?

Rosemary Lemon Sugar Cookies

February 6, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 8 Comments

Oh my heavens. I love rosemary. It has quickly become one of my favorite herbs. Luckily, my husband loves it just as much as I do. After making some rosemary candied bacon, I was dreaming of all the other ways I could infuse rosemary into foods we enjoy.

I originally thought about adding rosemary to my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe (which I will probably still try), but I decided sugar cookies would be the perfect vehicle for some herb infusion.

Unless we were decorating cut out sugar cookies, my mom always made World’s Best Sugar Cookies. I’m not sure where the recipe came from, but these soft, chewy pillows of sugary goodness definitely live up to the name. I updated this classic recipe to include rosemary and lemon.

Rosemary Lemon Sugar As I was dreaming of this cookie, I was reminded of a lemon cream scone recipe that further influenced the flavors. The scone is topped with a mixture of lemon zest and sugar, which I thought would be easy to replicate in the sugar cookie’s outer layer. I rolled my sugar cookie dough in a mixture of sugar, lemon zest, and minced fresh rosemary.

Minced fresh rosemary goes into the cookie dough as well as the sugar coating. A hint of lemon zest complements the earthy spice of rosemary. These are just perfect.

I must admit, they taste delicious straight from the freezer too. Tim and I have topped warmed up cookies with vanilla ice cream and we’ve also enjoyed them with buttercream sandwiched in the middle.

Rosemary Lemon Sugar Cookies

This recipe does require chilling. You can make the dough ahead of time and chill overnight. Cookies freeze really well.

Cookie Dough

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

Cookie Coating

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

zest of 1/2 lemon, approx 1/2-1 teaspoon

1/4 cup granulated sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, powdered sugar, and granulated sugar. Add egg and beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, 1 teaspoon minced rosemary, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Beat until just combined and add the oil and vanilla. Mix in the remaining flour mixture.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill at least two hours for easy handling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

When the dough is chilled, use a large cookie scoop to form 24 dough balls.

Stir rosemary, lemon zest, and sugar together using a fork to make sure the zest is evenly distributed.

Roll cookie balls in sugar mixture.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool on pan for a couple minutes than transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield: 2 dozen

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The Reluctant Communicator

February 4, 2013 ~ Emily ~ 20 Comments

Once upon a time, there was a girl who created a list. This list wasn’t any ordinary list. This list was full of future perfect thinking.

Every line on this list described the qualities she wanted in her husband. She described absolutes, hopes, and day dreams of what her husband would be like. Some things were necessities like having a growing relationship with God, actively serving in some ministry, and being full of integrity. Others were more sigh-inducing like having strong hands and being taller than her six-foot frame.

This girl had spent 24 years waiting on her future husband so she was confident about the things on her list. She was also certain about the qualities she wanted to avoid. One of those things was a bad communicator. She had witnessed the pitfalls and pain of mis communication in relationships and deeply wanted to avoid those trials.

When she met her tall youth pastor (with strong hands!), she was pleased at his communication skills. He didn’t shy away from tough topics and was willing to spend a date night talking over coffee instead of hitting the movie theatre. Her heart was swollen with delight that God had given her a communicative man who fit her list.

The girl and her man got married. Soon the girl realized that even with a good communicator boyfriend/fiance/husband, the two weren’t immune to communication issues. What this girl hadn’t anticipated was her own struggles with communication and what effects they would have on the beginnings of her marriage.

~~~

Yup, that girl is me.

One of the most oft repeated pieces of marital advice I received was to “communicate, communicate, communicate!”. Despite being an English major who felt pretty confident in my ability to articulate opinions and beliefs, being single had left my relationship communication skills untested for a quarter century. In my focus on someone else’s qualities, I neglected to examine if I had some of those qualities. Turns out, my communication skills had much room for improvement.

While Tim and I don’t have trouble talking, communicating is a different creature – one that I seemed to shy away from entirely.

I’m what you would call a reluctant communicator.

When faced with uncomfortable feelings, I withdraw. I don’t like to verbalize embarrassing emotions or express needs. Those things may create conflict and I have an extreme aversion to conflict. Not a realistic or healthy attitude for any relationship…

My sorry tactic for conflict avoidance is to have conversations with myself, processing internally. As a result, I leave Tim in the dust wondering why I’m upset or how I’ve arrived at certain conclusions. My journal gets more conversation time than my husband sometimes.

Here are two habits I’ve tried to adopt to combat my communication reluctance:

Include your husband when you process. I will always be an internal processor, but that doesn’t mean I have to exclude my husband. Once I’ve had some time to think, I try to reiterate my train of thought to Tim. Not only does Tim gives valuable feedback, often hearing my thoughts out loud brings a whole new dimension to my though processes. Even if you’re processing something potentially conflict producing, sharing where you’re at and how you arrived at those thoughts and feelings does more for a relationship than resolving the issue internally.
Share your heart with your husband first. As a blogger who values transparency, my posts are very real and very indicative of what’s currently in my heart. It’s easier for me to articulate with pen and paper so writing is my communication style of choice and is often where I turn first. I need to share the inner workings of Emily Gardner with Tim before I share it with the blogosphere. Husbands commit their lives, hearts, and bodies to us, and we should show that commitment respect by giving them first dibs on our hearts, lives, and bodies.

Those two habits are habits – they don’t come naturally to me and I don’t always succeed. However, the fruit born from these habits is oh so sweet. Important details of doing life with someone can easily be glazed over when you’re a reluctant communicator. I don’t want to miss out on sharing myself with Tim because I was reluctant to speak up and let him into my life.

~~~

Don’t miss out on what Kayse, Monica, Jamie, and Kelly have to say about communication!

Check out the other posts in this series: Service. Laughter. Sex